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This teacher research study took place in a bilingual second-grade classroom in the southwestern United States. The study investigates the "cuentos" told during "platicas literarias"/literature discussions and explores how five young Latinas used their cuentos to communicate meaning through intertextual connections. These intertextual connections revealed that young children from linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds are indeed capable of drawing on their cultural traditions--in this case storytelling--to make meaning. Their "cuentos" were used as the building blocks for the "platicas literarias" and provided counternarratives to the prevailing deficit view used to measure the academic potential of Latinos. (Contains 3 tables.)

Because schools place such high importance on text-based analysis often devoid of opportunities to draw on home knowledge, diverse ways of making meaning from books are often ignored. This qualitative study of a bilingual second-grade classroom examined the manner in which four young Latina students told stories about their life experiences in order to make meaning from the books they read for literature discussions. The findings illuminate that the stories told by the young Latinas were told for specific purposes; to make sense of their own and others' life's experiences, as responses to questions, connections to texts, and connections to each other. The study speaks to the necessity to include children's talk in all classrooms, particularly those with a high Latino population. (Contains 1 table and 1 footnote.)

This qualitative study examines what early childhood preservice teachers enrolled in a field-based literacy methods course deemed relevant regarding teaching, literacy, and learning. This study is based on postcourse interviews with 7 early childhood preservice teachers. Findings suggest that "contextualized field experiences" facilitate preservice teachers' development of "noticing and naming" as a social practice. Early childhood preservice teachers developed understandings regarding early literacy learning, teaching, and the nuanced but powerful ways learning and identity are linked to early childhood literacy learning. Implications include the need for more contextualized learning experiences in early childhood teacher education.

Countering the position that colorblindness is desirable for teachers and children, this article encourages early childhood education teachers to engage in conversations about race and racism with young children. We discuss why the early childhood years are important for interrupting racism and make suggestions for helping children develop tools for addressing it. Annotated examples of children's drawings about racism from a second grade classroom are shared to demonstrate that young children are not colorblind and that they think about and experience racism in their daily lives. We conclude that it is both an educational and ethical necessity to address racism with young children.